Basics of Christianity: Moving from a Child's to an Adult Understanding

This is the first sermon in the series, The Basics of Christianity. The series includes the Gospel Basics Part 1-3, a sub-series of the same, and sermons on the doctrines listed in Hebrews 6:1-2 as elementary. Unfortunately, what we learned as a child or adolescent is not the whole Gospel. The Gospel we learned as a child was processed with a child's mind, not with our adult minds. What we learned as a child in catechism was often by rote memorization, where adults sought to transfer and deposit chunks of information into their children's minds. This banking model of education was not transformative and self-directed. It also did not involve much, if any, critical thinking or reading methodology. Adults, returning to church and the faith of their youth after years or decades of absence, need to revisit those doctrines anew with an adult mind examining the how and why of those doctrines and not just the what, when, and where. An adult understanding is needed to discern and experience more fully God's purposes and will for our lives more succinctly and clearly.